3.26.2013

SCOTUS suggests the solution

It's getting closer! The oral arguments were today for the Prop 8 standing case. The justices make a big deal about same-sex adoption and family formation, not just on parenting, with Scalia saying the word marriage would require allowing the couple to adopt or use ART, and Olsen retorting that the state of California already allows same-sex adoption. And Ginsberg mentioned that a state might repeal its civil union law, and perhaps replace it with one that doesn't go as far in the area of adoption and 3PR. It's like they are screaming: Enact the Egg and Sperm Civil Union Compromise already! Tomorrow is the DOMA case about federal benefits, so perhaps it's another chance for them to suggest the Egg and Sperm Civil Union Compromise as a way to solve these problems, or at least press Pause. The Egg and Sperm Civil Union Compromise is a set of three federal laws to be enacted together: 1) Stop genetic engineering by limiting conception of children to the union of a man and a woman's sperm and egg. 2) Federally recognize state civil unions that are defined as "marriage minus conception rights." 3) Affirm in federal law the right of all marriages to conceive children together using their own genes. Together they affirm marriage is only between a man and a woman, give equal benefits to all couples, and preserve equal natural reproductive rights.